Thread: Pickman's Workbook

Thanks Joanna B, that sounds like a good idea. I know my workbook makes me look like I'm slacking, but things have been slow recently, mainly due to other parts of my life getting in the way. Also, I'm learning the hard way about things that ruin my sleep pattern. But I'll sign up to that competition asap, it looks like the sort of thing I should be doing to keep dreaming on my mind.

Originally Posted by NyxCC

How are your daytime practices going?

I'm still doing them, although not as intensely as I had been, mainly because they backfired on me. I would do a reality check in a dream, and go straight to "no, not dreaming". While I might not be reality checking as often as I used to, I try to do them more thoroughly now.

I nearly had some luck this morning with the DEILD. I turned in at around 1am last night, and I slept okay. My dreams were pretty vivid and I recalled much of them. When I woke up this morning at around 7am, I felt ill. My stomach was churning, and it felt like I was coming down with the flu. This actually had some interesting effects on my state of consciousness while dreaming.

While lying in bed, I very nearly experienced a WILD at least twice. It started off with some kind of hypnagogic hallucination. When my eyes were closed, I thought I was looking down on a pavement at a pound coin on the ground. At this point I knew I was dreaming. I tried to focus in on the coin, see which side was lying up, maybe make out some detail. My vision was blurry though. I tried to reach out with an imaginary arm to pick up the coin, but my perspective became even more blurred. That was the point where the dream image faded out.

This happened to me at least a couple of times before I got up at 8:30am. Strangely I don't feel too bad now - no illness.

I won't be posting an update tomorrow because I won't be sleeping tonight - not much at least. I will be out on a paranormal investigation until at least 3am, so I expect to only get a couple hours of sleep, so I might not have an update until Monday.

Hey, I think you should give yourself more credit. You have been consistently updating, got a number of lds, and you often attempt a DEILD. I wonder how many times you approximately wake up and do you try it after each one? At any rate, doing this daily or as often as you do has benefits too, you are keeping your mind thinking about lding, at the time that it should happen. This may even lead to incubation of the situation, where you might try to DEILD in the dream and then have an in-dream lucid.

I think you can have more lds and more often, so you need to have a positive attitude. When you try deilding, even if you don't get a deild straight away, put your focus on having an ld, and really expect to have one. It's like setting your intention forward, knowing it will happen. Make your con & subcon eagerly wait for this realization that you are now in a dream, to occur whenever you are waking up and then falling asleep in the morning.

About RCs, indeed quality really matters. Again, when you RC you might want not to answer the question "Am I dreaming now?" because you might be incubating the negative answer. Even pretending (within reasonable limits, and in your head obviously) and imagining scenarious can help. Maybe this is a dream, let's do another type of RC. If it was a dream, what would you do? Remind yourself the task you want to do. Always have a task or two that you want to do, so that you are ready because you might have the ld tonight. Be sure you are fully equipped.

Cool progress on the wild! Wish you fantastic dreams and lots of lds. Also, good luck in the competition!

If your workbook made you look like you are slacking, I would not have asked you whether you want to join the competition. Your workbook makes you look like someone who wants to have lucid dreams.

Thanks for the advice and words of encouragement NyxCC and JoannaB, especially the advice about attitude and reality checking, that sounds like something I need to do.

Originally Posted by NyxCC

You have been consistently updating, got a number of lds, and you often attempt a DEILD. I wonder how many times you approximately wake up and do you try it after each one?

I attempt a DEILD nearly every night, as for some reason I always wake up at 7am, about an hour or so before I need to get up. I've never considered myself to be a light sleeper, so this is pretty convenient.

The past few night have been uneventful. I was up until 4am on Saturday night thanks to the paranormal investigation so on Sunday night I was just tired. Last night I had to get up early for a doctors appointment so there was no time for my usual DEILD practice - I just wanted to get some proper sleep in before my day at work. The rest of the week is free though, so hopefully I can get something going this week.

I attempt a DEILD nearly every night, as for some reason I always wake up at 7am, about an hour or so before I need to get up. I've never considered myself to be a light sleeper, so this is pretty convenient.

That is indeed very convenient! Also, as I said, the frequent practice may carry over to a dream too. Best of luck during your days off and lots of ld power to you!

So I get nothing for ages, then all of a sudden I get (at least) three lucid dreams in one night!

I turned in earlier last night at 12:30am. I woke up at around 5:40am and attempted a WBTB, which I don't do very often. I got up, switched the lights on, and wrote out the dream I had just had in as much detail as possible. I then went to the toilet and went back to bed. As I fell asleep I started doing the whole daydream thing, where I think about the dream I just had, but allow my mind to fantasize about how I wish it had went. This daydream started to bring up elements that my conscious mind hadn't considered as I started to drift off.

I did not drift straight into a lucid dream from here. I blacked out before having another dream where I just knew I was dreaming. All I remember is being in a restaurant with someone from my office who I have never spoken with. She was dressed up as if for a sophisticated evening at a concert later or something. I sat her down and tried to have a chat with her. It didn't go very far, but she did seem strangely compliant with me, like a Stepford Wife.

I woke up from this, straight into another dream where I went lucid without the daydream interlude. I was having a bath in the morning (I always shower, so this should have been a trigger). I got out of the bath to see that the wash basin towered above me, as if I was only one foot tall. This triggered lucidity, the dimensions of the room started to correct itself. This one did not last very long.

Then I woke up from that, straight into another lucid dream in which I am in my bedroom, but the furniture is positioned completely differently, and there is a small black puppy (I think it was a labradoodle). I wasted that entire lucid dream playing with a puppy.

I think there were other lucid dreams but I cannot remember them all. I think the reason for my success last night is that I had lucid dreaming on my mind more often during the day. I listened to the DV podcast at work, I talked myself into the positive attitude about lucid dreaming as NyxCC mentioned in the above posts during the day, and I did a better job with my reality checks. Hopefully I can keep this going. If only that competition had started - this would a made a pretty good start for me.

That's fantastic, Pickman! Congrats on the lds!

Very nice sequence of events, that spontaneous wbtb, the daydreaming part with extra details, then catching things that were odd. And I totally would have wasted the lucid playing with the puppy too.

Great start ahead of the competition, keep up the good mood!

Thanks NyxCC! I think I just wish the puppy had not distracted me from what I wanted to do in a lucid dream.

I tried to replicate the previous night's success last night but I didn't quite manage it. I turned in at a good time, at 12:30, and I woke up at around 3:30am after another vivid dream which I could remember. So I got up, switched the lights on, went to the toilet and then sat down to write out my dream in as much detail as I could remember. I could not remember as much about this dream than the last one, so this was a shorter session. I then had to to think about how to spend the remainder of the ten minutes of wakefulness I had set aside for myself. I think I just lounged around on my bed for that time before turning in (I think you're supposed to do something mentally stimulating in WBTB - something to look into).

The dreams I had afterwards were pretty vivid, but no lucidity. I woke up at around 7:30am and wrote the thing down.

While the WBTB did not create a lucid dream this time, it does seem to make my dreams more vivid and memorable.

Last night I turned in a bit late at 1am, and attempted WBTB after waking up at 5am. I think it nearly succeeded - I got the weird daydream state thing again, but it did not lead to a lucid dream. Instead I just got a lot of crazy, very vivid dreams before waking at 8:30am.

I think WBTB is definitely something to pursue.

Not my best night. Got to bed late at 1:30am. Slept through without waking up, but dream recall was patchy. Woke up at 8:30am. Better luck tonight.

I had a brief success at lucidity last night. I turned in a bit late at 1am and I had a very vivid dream which I could recall quite well. I woke up at around 7am and attempted to DEILD, but I think I automatically rolled over onto my other side which ruined it. But in the dream that followed there was a brief period of lucidity in which I ended up chatting to a DC on a balcony at night. But then it went non-lucid again before waking up at 8:30am.

A brief success, but a success nonetheless. Hopefully I can keep it going.

No success last night, but recall is still pretty good. I turned in at around 12:45 and slept until 4:55am, when I attempted a WBTB. I recalled the entire dream I had as I wrote it down, then went back to bed ten minutes later. No lucidity, but my dream recall was still pretty good. I woke up at 8:20am.

Well done, Pickman! Congrats!

Thanks NyxCC! Dream recall is still pretty good, although no lucidity last night, possibly because I turned in far too late at 1:20am. I recalled parts of my dreams when I woke up at 5:40am and wrote them down before attempting WBTB, but no lucidity came about - maybe I was too tired. I woke up again at 8:20am. Better luck tonight I suppose.

Turned in a little late at 1am and I slept through until 8am, no waking up in the night like I normally do. Dream recall was patchy. I think this might be because I was feeling slightly run down, so maybe my body just needed to recover.

Turned in at around 12:50 and slept through until 7:20am - too late to attempt a WBTB, but not too late to attempt a DEILD. The DEILD failed, and I woke up at 8:20am, but my recall was still pretty good. SStill feeling slightly run down, so that could be the problem.

Still feeling like crap, and I guess this is affecting my ability to lucid dream. I turned in a bit late at 1am which didn't help, but I did recall much of my dream when I woke up at 5:40am. After attempting to perform a WBTB, I recalled bits of my dream afterwards, but still no lucidity. I woke up feeling even more rubbish at 8:30am.

Just like last night, I turned in at around 1am, but this time I slept right through until 8:30am, no waking in the night. My dream recall is still pretty good, but no lucidity.

Turned in earlier at around 12:45 and slept until 3:45am when I woke up and decided to attempt WBTB. I stayed up for ten minutes, writing my dream down, and went back to bed. No lucidity, and I woke up at 7am. I had to get up early so no time to attempt a DEILD.

Although there is no lucidity, I am finding that in my dreams I am becoming more active rather than passively accepting of what is happening. I think and react to things the way I would in my daily life, although I don't get that I am dreaming. I think this must be a starting point for lucidity.

That sounds good. It may be that your awareness practices are leaking into the dream. Wish you lots of lucid energy and also great holidays!

Thanks NyxCC, enjoy your holidays! Another success tonight:

I turned in late at around 1am, and woke up at 6am. I decided to attempt another WBTB, not expecting much to come of it, since I had to be up at 7:30am. I got up, wrote my dreams down, and went back to bed about ten minutes later.

I remember much of my dreams, and I briefly went lucid towards the end. I was walking through a hospital corridor when I realized that I was dreaming and I tried thinking about what to do. Before I could do anything I woke up. So a pretty brief lucid, but a lucid nonetheless.

Thanks! Hey, that's nice! Congrats on the ld!

Didn't sleep too well last night, even though I turned in at a reasonable hour (12:45). I was feeling a bit stressed, so it took me a while to get to sleep. Dream recall was patchy. I woke up at around 8:30am, no lucids.

I nearly succeeded with a WBTB this morning but I messed it up.

I turned in at around 12:30 and slept until 7am, when I got up and performed a WBTB (it was still dark so I could get away with it). I spent ten minutes writing down my dreams in as much detail as possible, and went back to sleep.

Because it was closer to the time when I normally get up, I had a hard time dropping off. As I lay there, I started to get the beginnings of a dream going in my hypnogogic imagery. I found myself watching a dream before me, and I got overexcited. I tried to interact with a DC, but once this happened, the dream-state faded. Once my conscious mind got too involved it turned into a normal daydream.

I did fall asleep and had further patchy dreams before I woke up again at 8:30am, but no lucidity.